We are looking for a new THEME SONG for the boat and need help to find the right one. We used ‘We are the World’ in 2016 and it was awesome. We need another song like this with strong,upbeat message of love, helping others, peace and courage. The theme of the 2018 canal parade is HEROES. But we don’t want David Bowie.
Do you know a great song that would be a good theme song for us? If you send in your suggestion and our board approves it, you will receive one free place on the boat (Euro 75.00 value) and invitation to our private reception on the Thursday night.
Please note that we know about Bowie’s HERO, and THIS IS ME from the Greatest Showman. These will not be considered as potential theme. Write your best theme song on the World Religion Boat Messenger -which will be private – and we will confirm your message. Any questions, contact Barbara Rogoski. Contest open until March 31st. PLEASE HELP US FIND OUR NEW KICK BUTT THEME SONG.

Where many of you will have made New Years resolutions, we already made them a month ago. After many hours of deliberating we, the WRB team, decided that we are going to sail again on August 4th 2018. Lucky for us the AGP organisation has confirmed that we can still use the wildcard that came with our first prize in 2016, so we are certain of a place in the Canal Parade Fleet.

Our theme of 2018 will be ‘Coexist as ONE family’. As our visitors from 2016 will confirm this describes the feeling we all had while sailing through the Amsterdam Canals.

One of the conditions to sail again was the participation of our friend and art designer Gerwin Smit. He already saw us coming with our request and responded enthusiastically and came up with another amazing design. This year our core team is going to be much bigger than last time, as a lot of our visitors from 2016 are willing to help us with the 2018 challenge. You can find more information about our team at the ‘About Us’ tab in the menu. Do you also want to be part of the organizing team or do you have ideas about funding? Please post here or on our Facebook page.

Drag queen Kiki Boops, known from Holland’s Got Talent, will join the World Religion Boat during Gay Pride. She will sing the themesong ‘We are the World’. By sailing on the World Religion Boat Kiki wants to show that she believes …..
Aneudy Garcia’s alter ego Kiki Boops represents the searching believers on the World Religion Boat. It was confusing for the organization whether Aneudy could join the event without an active religion. That was why Chairperson, Barbara Rogoski started a conversation with him. For Aneudy this was unique, ‘I wasn’t judged for who I am, but asked about my vision on religion.’

Aneudy grew up in a deeply religious family in the Dominican Republic. ‘A coming out means that you don’t fit anymore in the picture that your church is painting, but it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love you anymore. If your faith is real, you can actually FEEL God.’ Aneudy was looking for answers and found new questions. But all questions and answers lead him to a clear conclusion: ‘God exists and He exists for all of us.’ Aneudy says that his knowledge is limited, but he has an open view to all ideas and is looking for a religious place where he can come home to.

In his personal experience people are experiencing religion in a wrong way: ‘People are living by rules written down in very old books. We should realize that we are living now, many generations after the people that wrote those books. It’s important what you are doing with your faith TODAY! We are the people that should rewrite the Holy scriptures! It’s all about recognizing, feeling and experiencing God! We should include everybody, because we are all God’s creation!’

Aneudy takes Jesus as an example. Jesus didn’t stick to the old stories in the old Testament, the Jewish scrolls. He was innovative! He adjusted his Jewish religion to the time he was living in and preached God’s love for all. That’s the way we should do it, too. You have to figure out ‘What can I get out of my religion?”

The message that the World Religion Boat wants to share with the world fits perfectly with Aneudy’s vision. When we are talking about the boat, Aneudy gets all excited. As a visual artist, it’s no problem for him to visualize the boat on August 6th: ‘All religions will be there, hand in hand, together showing the world that it’s all about love and respect.’ According to Aneudy, it’s just another way of thinking: ‘It’s all about respect, that will make sure that the differences no longer create distance.’ ‘Hey look at us here on this boat, we even have a drag queen!’

When we asked him if he thinks being on the boat will have consequences for his career, Aneudy is very clear: ‘ I do this for my heart! Everything will be alright, because If God is not with me, I don’t know!’ He even believes he received his artistic from God. ‘God gave me these gifts, if I don’t use them He could take them again. Art is what I am!’

A final message Aneudy Garcia/Kiki Boops wants to share with us is: ‘Don’t be afraid to be good! No matter the God you have, if you keep goodness in your heart, that God is gonna be good with you!’

After an amazing day in het Vondelpark, we gathered at the M. It was so nice to finaly meet so many people that are on our guest list. We have been mailing with all our guests, but many of them we never saw in real life till this day.

The M was meetingpoint for the religious groups in the march, meaning De vlaggenactie from Wielie Elhorst and Berendien Bos and our Coexist group. During the march we formed one group and that felt powerful! The banner of the World Religion Boat was the face of the religious LGBT’s and the huge rainbowflag, 25 meters!, was it’s body; God’s family was showing itself!

It was so special to be part of the Pride March together with another 10.000 participants, to walk through the crowds to the Dam, to see how our message spread. Some of the audience just read the message and smiled, others started an aplause that found it’s way through the crowd.

The march stopped at de Dam, but our journey will go on, at least till August 6th. Then we will sail and show them our message again! Coexist in Freedom! If we can do it on a boat, YOU can do it too!

On the boat all people will wear 7 bracelets in the colors of the rainbow. Every color will represent one of the religions present on the boat and will have a matching phrase on it. This morning Nathalie donated 250 euro to make the Muslim bracelets possible. This bracelet is red and will have a beautiful phrase:A great way to support our project Nathalie Thank you so much!

For 250 euro you will we the sponsor of the purple Christian, the blue Jewish, the yellow Hindustani/Buddhist, the orange Krishna, the green humanist or the pink LGBT bracelets! Sponsoring can be done by individuals like Nathalie or organisations. Please contact us on Facebook, the website worldreligionboat.com or email worldreligionboat@gmail.com

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copyright logo Coexist as ONE family

Our logo for this boat is the COEXIST logo that we have modified to add the Hindu sign, the transgender sign and the words: as ONE family. There is no profit being made on this world religion boat project and the copyright of the original image belongs to the copyright holder.